According to Statistics Estonia, the most active practitioners of amateur cultural activities in Estonia are the 10–24-year-old young people, among whom singing is the most popular activity.

According to the Time Use Survey, 83% of the 10–24-year-olds were involved in some amateur cultural activity in 2010. Among the youth, more active practitioners were those aged below 18, of whom 56% practiced some amateur cultural activity at least once a week. 44% of the people aged 18–24 were active practitioners. 17% of the 10–24-year-olds practiced singing at least once a week. 14% of the persons in this age group practiced dancing, 13% – fine arts and 12% played a musical instrument.

Tartu county had the biggest share of youth involved in amateur cultural activities and Ida-Viru county had the smallest share (94% and 66%, respectively). The share of active young practitioners of amateur cultural activities i.e. those who practiced a cultural activity at least once a week was the largest in Hiiu county and the smallest in Ida-Viru county (70% and 29%, respectively).

With advancing age, the share of people practicing amateur cultural activities decreases and the share of those, who do not practice any such activity at all, increases. Among the 25–64-year-olds there were 74% of those practicing some kind of amateur cultural activity and, among persons aged 65 or older the respective proportion was 56%.

Young practitioners of amateur cultural activities by county, 2010
(percentage among the 10–24-year-olds of the county)

Estonia’s non-profit institutional sectors spent a total of 116 million euros on research and development last year, which marks an increase of 6% in annual comparison, data of the national statistics agency show.

Outlays on research and development activities grew by 6% to 88.5 million euros in the education sector and by 13% to 24.6 million euros in the government sector.

In the non-profit private sector, R&D spending shrank by 32% year-on-year to 2.9 million euros.